??? (beelang)

Background

??? is a language "spoken" by member of the ???, commonly referred to as just "bees" in English.

The language evolved from ????? (proto-Hymenolang), after the first alkdjfaskljdfsafkldjasdf. Something something evolution. ????? has multiple different dialects, but this page will mostly focus on the "standard" dialect, spoken by western honey bees (scientific name).

spoken by "real" bees, not fictional species based on bees.

Phonology

Grayed-out letters are allophones or marginal phonemes.

	Bilabial BLBilabial	Labiodental LDLabiodental	Dental DDental	Alveolar AAlveolar	Post-Alveolar PAPost-Alveolar	Velar VVelar
Nasal	m			n		ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive	b			d		g
Fricative	β ⟨vh⟩	v	ð ⟨th⟩	z	ʒ ⟨zh⟩
Approximant					r ~ ɹ ⟨r⟩

	Bilabial BLBilabial		Labiodental LDLabiodental		Dental DDental		Alveolar AAlveolar		Post-Alveolar PAPost-Alveolar		Velar VVelar
Nasal		m		(ɱ)				n				ŋ
Plosive	(p)	b	((p̪))	(b̪)			(t)	d			(k)	g
Affricate	((p͡ɸ))	(b͡β)	((p̪͡f))	(b̪͡v)	((t̪͡θ))	((d̪͡ð))	((t͡s))	(d͡z)	((t̠͡ʃ))	(d̠͡ʒ)
Fricative	(ɸ)	β	(f)	v	(θ)	ð	(s)	z	(ʃ)	ʒ
Approximant									r (r ~ ɹ)

v́hn v̂vmd bv́hhrr
/ʒn˦ vːmd˥˩ b͡βːrː˦/
1.sg-nom-worker kill 2-sing.obl.worker
"I kill you"

v̌hhm z̋hhnd źzrn
/βːm˩˥ ʒːnd˥ zːɹn˦/
3.sg-nom-worker see 3-sing.obl.queen
"she (the worker) sees her (the queen)"

z᷈zz
/ˈzːː˧˦˧/
"sleep"

z᷈zzǹz
/ˈzːːn˧˦˧.z̩˨/
"(habbitually) sleeps"

v̋hr
/βr˥/
"scratch"

v̋hrmvh
/βrm.˥β̩˥
[βrm.˥ɸ̩˥]
"(habbitually) scratches"

n̂gzh
/ŋʒ˥˩/
"flow"

n̂gzhn̂gzh
/ˈŋʒ˥˩.ŋʒ˥
[ˈŋʒ˥˩.ŋʃ˥˩]
"(habbitually) flows"

Producing Phonemes

Since bees don't have vocal cords, or really most of the same mouthparts as humans, they're unable to "speak" in the way that most humans can. The vast majority of their sounds are created by buzzing their wings. The phonology above is an attempt to map those buzzes to sounds that most humans can make themselves.

Bees produce nasals, fricatives, and approximants buzzing their wings in different patterns and frequencies. Plosives are caused by the sudden stopping and starting of buzzing, and affricates are caused by suddenly stopping and starting again, but at the pattern/frequency of a fricative.

something something co-articulation?

Bees can also use speed to change the tone of their buzzing or hold the same pattern for an extended period of time to produce geminated consonants.

Gemination

??? includes regular, long, and hyper-long consonants.

Tones

??? has five tonal levels: high, middle, low, super high, and super low. all of the tones can apply to [???] by themself, but blah blah complex tones: rising, falling, peaking, and dipping. Complex tones are based on relative pitch, not absolute pitch. All that matters is that the following tone is higher/lower than the one before it. For example ??? is usually pronounced as [], but may be pronounced as [], [], or [] in other dialects and idiolets.

complex tones (rising, falling, peaking, and dipping) are exclusive to (words with??) long and hyperlong consonants. Peaking and dipping are exclusive to (words with??) hyper-long consonants

Thingy #1

	Normal	Long	Extra Long
Extra high	z̋	z̋z	z̋zz
High	ź	źz	źzz
Mid	z̄	z̄z	z̄zz
Low	z̀	z̀z	z̀zz
Extra Low	z̏	z̏z	z̏zz
Rising	ž	žz	žzz
Falling	ẑ	ẑz	ẑzz
Peaking	z᷈	z᷈z	z᷈zz / z᷈
Dipping	z᷉	z᷉z	z᷉zz / z᷉

Thingy #2

	Normal	Long	Extra Long
Extra high	zi	zzi	zzzi
High	ze	zze	zzze
Mid	zu	zzu	zzzu
Low	za	zza	zzza
Extra Low	zo	zzo	zzzo
Rising		zzoe	zzzoe
Falling		zzia	zzzia
Peaking			zzzaeo / zaeo
Dipping			zzzeai / zeai

(see orthography later to see possible lengh and tone combinations)

Something something digraphs

Normal	Long	Extra Long
vh	vhh	vhhh

(haven't decided if tones for whole word or syllable)

*ng'g
/ŋg/

*n'ng
/nŋ/

*ngg
/ŋː/

Grammar

Word Order

??? is primarily SVO (Subject-Verb-Object), but sometimes uses other word order for the sake of emphasis or intensity.

Take for example the following sentence:

"??? ??? ???"

(gloss)

"(translation)"

This would be considered the standerd way to klsajfklasdjf, however, lets say klasjdafa a specific aspect of the klasjdfa.